Age of the Miyun dyke swarm: Constraints on the maximum depositional age of the Changcheng System

Abstract

A group of NE-trending (~30°) mafic dykes, termed Miyun swarm herein, are distributed around the Miyun Reservoir, northern China, and have individual widths of over 40 m, and lengths of up to 8000 m. Baddeleyite grains were extracted from a ~40 m wide dyke. Using an isotope dilution thermal ionization mass spectrometry method, these grains yield an average 207Pb/ 206Pb age of 1731±4 Ma (n = 4; or 1731±1 Ma, n = 3). Because this dyke is overlain unconformably by conglomerates of the Changzhougou Formation, the lowermost formation of the Changcheng Group, the maximum depositional age of this group is constrained to be no earlier than 1731 Ma. This result also suggests that the Changcheng System, with the Changcheng Group as its standard stratigraphic section, is younger than 1731 Ma. The Miyun dykes possibly have distinct petrogenesis from the subsequent anorthosite-rapakivi intrusions (1730-1680 Ma), which are thought to be responsible for the opening of the Yan-Liao rift, where the Changcheng Group was deposited. Thus it is reasonable to set the initial boundary of the Changchengian Period at 1730 Ma or slightly younger. © 2011 Science China Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.